Dr. Merrill Singer is a medical anthropologist and professor emeritus in Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. He is best known for his research on substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, syndemics, health disparities, environmental health, and minority health. He received his Master's degree in Anthropology from California State University in 1975 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Utah in 1979. He held a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University (1979–1980) and another at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine from 1982 to 1983. In 2017, he was awarded the Society for Medical Anthropology Career Award.